Okay, now that we got that over with, some links and other nonsense to finish this monstrosity off after the jump.

First, I’d like to talk a bit about this Kings team vs this Knicks team. Starting with the season 4 factors for both teams. All numbers in parentheses are league rank (1-30 in otherwords). First up are the Offensive 4 Factors:

“It’s just a process now of continuing – and I think Keith’s done a great job – of working individually with our young players and trying to educate them about what he wants and what they need to do to be better players and put that together into a team concept. And I think it is showing into some results.”

Now, I’m a bit stunned. You could read inito this (which is what Petrie wants) that the previous coaching staff didn’t work with players. It reveals a lot about Petrie and how much he doesn’t want to be seen as the guy who hired Paul Westphal. (This is going to stain Geoff Petrie for his entire time on Sacramento and particularly the end of his tenure.)

On the other hand, I’m glad that Keith Smart is getting into Cousins and Evans head a little bit. It’s something both need, and both need done in different ways.

Some thoughts about the game tonight: Excuses are for suckaz. Don’t let the b2b and “we got in 2am excuse fool you”. It’s part of the road, and these guys should know that it’s no longer an excuse. It’s not that hard to go out and play a game in MSG the next night. It’s not like the Knicks are World Champion deathstar types. On the other hand, with this Kings team you aren’t always guaranteed to get the same thing every night.

Last but not least, Bloguin’s Knicks blog “Knicks Fanatics”has a great piece that hype over Jeremy Lin is not really new. And, honestly, I agree with the assessment that Jeremy Lin can sustain his success long term that is more unlikely in Tim Tebow’s case. Why? Lin’s flaws are very fixable, and Tebow’s flaws typically hold QB’s back long term in the NFL. But we’ll see. The Jeremy Lin story seems to being written every 0.5 seconds or so these days. (See what I did there?)

Kings required reading

Bee City Beat/Political Reporters Dale Kasler and Ryan Hillis hold a chat with some Bee readers. This may or may not be informative. (I’m going to leave that up to you to decide because I’m not reading it.) But, the key vote yesterday was held and passes 9-0 mainly because there was no reason to oppose it.

A great fanpost from Sactown Royalty reader M Shady brings up some very important points regarding the arena issue. If you have not read it, please do.

Stathead Final Thoughts

DeMarcus Cousins and his numbers. Most people will cite his season as improved because of the rebounding (which is true but not surprising), the better FG% which has led to slightly better efficiency than a year ago (also true but it’s not an astronomical rise), or even the fouls seem under far greater control than last year (5.2 fouls per36 minutes and now it’s 5.1 fouls per36 minutes). These things are all true, and the foul drop is largely due to the more minutes being played on a consistent basis. That’s one area.

But even with last night’s 6 TO game, Cousins TOV% is now 14.8%. From last season’s 18.5 TOV%, that’s a substantial drop. Cousins ORtg and DRtg both now stand at 102, and I expect both to continue moving away from each other. (This is good.) At the rate Cousins is going, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cousins with a 105 ORtg and a 99 or even 98 DRtg. This is something to keep an eye on as the season moves forward.

Final Thoughts

I’m interested to see which Kings team comes out. Is it a fast pace Kings team that is lackadaisical getting back in transition? Is it a fast pace team that gets up tempo while maintaining the transition defense aspect of things. Can the Kings actually play defense in the halfcourt against the Knicks? Can Tyreke Evans and DeMarcus Cousins play strong games on the 2nd game of a back to back? Lots of interesting questions tonight. How many will be answered? Very few, but the game will likely be a fast paced close contest with lots of points scored.

The game starts at 4:30 PST on Comcast California. (Or MSG if you are in New York.) Go Kings!